


Time

by bookworm03



Series: Girl Crush [3]
Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Drunken Kissing, F/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 18:15:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13440450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookworm03/pseuds/bookworm03
Summary: With time, Leslie practices moving on. GirlCrushAU.





	Time

**Author's Note:**

> Part three in this series (I actually found some motivation). Thank you so much for your comments and kudos. I hope you enjoy!

He’s always there.

This irritating, _clawing_ that seems to have nestled into every nerve in her body is there. It’s pulling and plucking and keeping her from focusing on anything else. She hears he might be in a meeting and her heart lightens, even though she knows what she was; she knows they’re pretending this never happened.

She cries in front of beautiful sunflower Ann Perkins, who promises he’s not that great and she doesn’t want someone who doesn’t see how amazing she is.

Leslie tries to have perspective. She cares about him and she knows he won’t make a decision overnight, but she so wants him to. She fantasizes about coming home from work only to find him parked in her driveway. She imagines flowers at her door, phone calls to grab dinner _just them_ and confessions that he ended it because of her.

She thinks about life with nothing between them.

And sometimes it’s great but sometimes it’s terrible. Sometimes they’re not a good match and she built everything up way too much in her head to really see things clearly.

But mostly it’s good and when she brings him home for Thanksgiving her mom agrees he has a cute butt.

She is not a patient woman.

She moves on though. She stops looking for clues, for signs their relationship is nearing its conclusion. Cindy is happy and Leslie convinces herself even if she knew the truth they would work through it. They’ve put too much into each other to give up because of a simple kiss.

Sometimes she feels used. Ben doesn’t speak of it and everything remains status quo. She tells Ann she just wants to know he felt it too, at least in the moment.

And then, in a dramatic swing of emotion, Leslie convinces herself she was never anything to him anyway. It’s her way of coping, of trying to move on. She can’t bear it anymore.

Other times she wants to go back to that stairwell.

She gets angry at him and then she ignores him and then she falls back into what they were before. They go from cordial at meetings to friendly to joking around. Maybe he repressed the whole thing without even knowing it.

Weeks pass, then months, and Leslie is just about over it. She’s dating, she’s meeting other guys, she only thinks about Ben once a day if she sees him. She can’t help the heart flutters, she’s only human.

Leslie also takes up jogging. Ann’s started because she’s dating Chris and it’s terrible, but it gets her mind off him. Anything to get her mind off him is good.

It’s almost summer and she’s texting a guy from the website Tom signed her up for when her phone rings, and for the first time in a long time _Ben Wyatt_ lights up her display. She answers it with shaky hands, trying to keep her voice casual.

“Hello?”

It’s the same, but it’s not. His voice is strained.

“Hi. How are you?”

“Um, fine, how are - ”

“What are you doing tonight?”

“Tonight?” Leslie glances at the plate of cookies on her counter and the unopened bottle of red wine.

“No plans. Probably a history documentary and some scrapbooking. What are you doing?”

“I’m outside.”

Her heart lifts and her stomach drops all at once. She wonders if she could text Ann while keeping Ben on the phone, but her hands are shaking too much to be that nimble while multitasking. She closes her eyes instead, waiting to fly away.

It’s not a dream.

“I thought maybe you’d want to have dinner.”

“Um.” Now her voice is strained, even as she tries to keep it cheerful. “Okay, sure. Just give me a few minutes.”

They hang up and Leslie immediately dials Ann, screaming into the phone as she tries to decide what could possibly be a good outfit for an I-don’t-know-what-this-means dinner. She settles on jeans and a pretty shirt, fixes her makeup and practically runs outside.

He’s there in his Saturn, fingers drumming against the wheel in a nervous twitch. Leslie opens the passenger door and he jolts. She manages to smile.

“Hey.”

“Hey. Do you feel like Italian food?”

And just like that it's easy again.

“Uh huh.”

“Great.” He puts the car in gear. “I know a place.”


End file.
